The Triplet Life Store

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To be honest there are two subjects that most moms try to avoid discussing with other moms, those are vaccinations and car seat safety. I have avoided participating in these discussions because it gets so heated, argues for their side, and can get just down right nasty to those who do not agree with their point of view. In light of a lot of things being said lately due to the measles cases in the US, I have two questions for everyone to think about. You may not agree with me and I may not agree with you, but these are questions everyone should be thinking and asking themselves.

Most people have probably seen the movie The Help, but I wonder if they felt as I did watching it. Movies like this make my heart ache. It's the way people treat others because they are different in some way, because they think they are better then them. The little light though is that not everyone is like that. There are some who will stand up and stand by those being persecuted whether they are different or not. I never thought I lived a sheltered life. I have had friends/ worked with/ taken care of people from all walks of life, colors, classes, and so forth. I have never really seen the type of prejudices that I see in movies like this, though I know they go on in our world, even now. I think that has more to do with the way I interact and treat people, then the fact that it doesn't exist. That one sentence sums up how we break this kind of hate with our children.

I never dreamt that I would be a mother of triplets. Even when we were going through IVF and they said there was a 10% chance, I never thought about it. I suppose that is odd since I have heard just the opposite from so many other multiple moms. I also knew from the first time we saw three little sacs on our first ultrasound that we would be having triplets, even though we were told there might be a chance that not all of them would mature (develop a heartbeat). There was a point when I was around 32 weeks pregnant and started having regular contractions and the doctor wanted to put me on magnesium. I knew a lot about it from being a nurse and something inside me said to try upping the dosage of the oral medication I was already on first. Oh how I made my doctor mad but he agreed none the less, and it turns out my gut was right. After 24 hours of upping the dosage I was doing great again. My goal of 35 weeks didn't happen. I was one day shy of it but I gained 30lbs of fluid in one week (pre-eclampsia) and there was no waiting. No one required NICU and they were all healthy and over 6lbs when they were born. They didn't sleep through the night until they were 7 months old, and I still feel like I'm trying to catch up with the sleep deprivation.

I hear this a lot from parents, thing is though, it's untrue. It's not thankless, they are just silent, shown through actions. Having adult children has made me realize this more then ever. I never heard them say "Thank you for reading to me so much when I was little and instilling the love of reading in me". I have watched them become huge bookworms, reading large varieties of subjects, advancing their knowledge/education independently, and both have a deep love for learning new things. I know that they will pass the same on to their children.

This has been my motto for almost 5 years now. Before the I became pregnant with the triplets I was an organized choatic person. That may be hard for some to grasp so I'll try to explain. I was always a strong type A personality ambitious, sensitive, always piling on work/ activities, very driven in everything I commited to, and even a control freak in some areas (floors being the biggest, if they floors are clean- it's going to be ok,lol). On the other hand I tended to choatic in where my interests led to, I went with my insticts more then what others said, I never cared about being the odd person, I would do things/go places on the spur of the moment, going out of my way to help others, and no one was a stranger (often refered to as my Hippie side).

After giving birth to the triplets my A side came out and the choas in myself retreated. I realize now this was a survival technique to having these three. I had to go from "no schedule, winging the day" to "There is a large schedule hanging in the fridge, whiteboards detailing every waking moment of the kid's feeding-dipers-activity, and posted on the blog to help others (but really it's to remeber the sleep deprived year)." Every minute of every day was scheduled. My life became like one large asembly line that had to be adhearded to or else a choas not even I could imagine would ensue. Yes I think that acurately discribes the first year for me. I was in a type A personality wonderland while my Hippie side was fighting to break free from the structure. It was about survivial and we adapt to survive ;) Now don't get me wrong, we had fun,laughter, and tender moments, you just have a hard time seeing them when your sinking in it!